Pension and Benefits Co-ordinator

Overview

Join to apply for the Pension and Benefits Co-ordinator role at Sopra Steria.

Are you an experienced pension professional looking to make a meaningful impact in a dynamic shared service environment? We have a new and exciting role for a dedicated Pension and Benefits Advisor to lead the accurate administration and management of multiple pension schemes and employee benefits. With pensions at the heart of this role, we’re looking for someone who has hands-on experience across various schemes—ideally including government or civil service pensions—and who may have worked in payroll with crossover into pensions administration. If you bring deep pension expertise, we’ll support you in developing the benefits side.

Our HR operations function will be moving into our Newcastle office in the coming months. That means you’ll be based onsite at our Newcastle office three days a week (Tuesday to Thursday), with the flexibility to work from home on the remaining days. During the initial training period, occasional travel to our Stockton office may be required.

What you’ll be doing

• Pension Administration: Lead end-to-end processes across multiple schemes (e.g., PCSPS, NHS, LGPS), including joiners, leavers, AVCs, salary sacrifice, and statutory reporting. Provide expert guidance on complex pension queries and liaise with providers to support accurate processing.
• Exit & Retirement: Prepare and explain pension exit statements and retirement options, ensuring timely and accurate benefit processing.
• Compliance & Reporting: Support adherence to pension legislation, tax rules, and GDPR. Submit statutory reports and maintain up-to-date policies aligned with legislative changes.
• Benefits Administration: Be responsible for monthly payroll-linked benefits (e.g., health insurance, PMI, life assurance), including handling Death in Service claims and resolving provider issues.
• Subject Matter Expertise & Engagement: Act as the pensions SME, delivering training and collaborating with HR, payroll, finance, and external administrators to promote seamless operations and consistent, high-quality approaches.

What you’ll bring

• Solid understanding of Civil Service, NHS, and LGPS pension schemes, including reporting, compliance, and multi-scheme administration.
• Experience with employee benefits programs and resolving provider issues.
• Skilled in various payroll systems, and advanced Excel; familiarity with case management tools.
• High attention to detail, strong problem-solving abilities, and the ability to explain complex pension matters clearly and empathetically.
• Capable of handling multiple schemes and time-sensitive tasks in a shared services or HR operations environment.
• High numeracy and literacy (GCSE A/B or equivalent); professional pension or payroll qualification desirable.

If you are interested in this role but not sure if your skills and experience are exactly what we’re looking for, please do apply, we’d love to hear from you!

Employment details

• Employment Type: Full-time, Permanent
• Location: Newcastle (Hybrid – 3 days PW)
• Security Clearance Level: SC
• Salary: £28-30kpa
• Benefits: 25 days annual leave with the option to buy extra days, health cash plan, life assurance, pension, and generous flexible benefits fund

Diversity and inclusion

We embrace difference as a source of creativity, innovation and competitive advantage and are striving to become a more diverse organisation. We welcome applications from people with a diverse variety of backgrounds and identities. We are committed to equality of opportunity for all and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation or marital status. We participate in the Disability Confident scheme and are committed to offering an interview to any candidate with a disability, who meets the minimum criteria for the role. If you require any adjustments to the recruitment process, please let us know when completing your application.

We are just at the start of what we can achieve together. Come and join us!